For the past decade, a cadre of social scientists has claimed that kids raised by homosexuals show “no differences” from kids raised by opposite-sex couples.

Now, a large national study of the well-being of young adults reared in different types of families challenges this widely circulated “no differences” thesis.

In this month’s Social Science Research, University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus reports that Americans ages 18 to 39 who grew up in families where either parent had a same-sex romance fared significantly worse on 25 of 40 measures. They were three and a half times likelier to be unemployed and almost four times likelier to be on public assistance than children raised...READ MORE

July 1 issue editorial on the New Evangelization.

The bishops who will gather in Rome to discuss the New Evangelization have their marching orders.

And so do we laity, who gather in the public square to carry out that New Evangelization in our everyday lives.

The 13th ordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held at the Vatican Oct. 7-28, will examine “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.”

The instrumentum laboris (working document) that will help them in their discussions was issued June 19. It is a summary of the responses to the questions that were submitted by bishops’ conferences around the world as part of the planning for this important synodal gathering.

The Holy Father's June 24 Angelus address.

Pope Benedict XVI says the Church's celebration of the birth of John the Baptist should be a reminder that for God all things are possible.

“From his mother’s womb, in fact, John is the forerunner of Jesus: His miraculous conception is announced from the Angel to Mary as a sign that 'nothing is impossible to God,'” he said to pilgrims in St. Peter's Square during his midday Angelus address June 24.

The Pope was marking the solemn feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. He noted that, apart from Our Lady, St. John is the only saint to have a birthday celebrated as a liturgical feast, “because it is closely connected to the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God.”

Carl Anderson told journalists gathered for the 2012 Catholic Media Conference in Indianapolis last week that we must 'exercise our right to vote on our own terms, as Catholics, and not on the terms of others.'

INDIANAPOLIS--Catholic voters must demand respect for their moral convictions and the Church's freedom in 2012 and beyond, the head of the Knights of Columbus said in a June 22 speech.

The faithful “must have the courage to act boldly” by insisting that candidates “respect the integrity and mission of the Catholic Church and its institutions,” Supreme Knight Carl Anderson told journalists gathered for the 2012 Catholic Media Conference in Indianapolis.

As they cast their votes, Catholics “must have the courage to tell candidates that if they want Catholic votes they will have to respect the fundamental principles of Catholic social teaching,” the head of the Catholic fraternal order...READ MORE

A team of scientists at the University of Washington has cracked the entire code of a human fetus using only a sample of blood from its mother and a saliva smear from its father.

The technology is a significant step toward standard comprehensive testing of babies in the womb for genetic defects — those that mark serious disorders as well as those indicating risk for such diseases as alcoholism and obesity. And it potentially provides a window into non-medical heritable traits, such as hair and eye color, athletic prowess and IQ.

Rather than saving lives, pro-lifers see this test as an enhanced “search and destroy” diagnostic tool that exponentially expands the genetic information...READ MORE